Analysis of particulate contamination during launch of the MMS mission

NASA's Magnetospheric MultiScale (MMS) is an unmanned constellation of four identical spacecraft designed to investigate magnetic reconnection by obtaining detailed measurements of plasma properties in Earth's magnetopause and magnetotail. Each of the four identical satellites carries a suite of instruments which characterize the ambient ion and electron energy spectrum and composition. Some of these instruments utilize high-voltage microchannel plates and are sensitive to particulate contamination. In this paper, we analyze the transport of particulates during pre-launch, launch and ascent events, and use the analysis to obtain quantitative predictions of particle contamination on the instruments. Particle redistribution is calculated by considering the gravitational and aerodynamic forces acting on the particles.